FuzzCreations: From My Nest To Yours

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Wednesday

So, I have a dilemma... I have tons of ideas of creative outlets but I'm not sure what is the thing that "I love". I feel blessed to be able to have success with whatever I put my mind to, however, I also feel like a severe ADD kid with a stack of presents on Christmas. We have a new fancy Canon camera, a new home in Hawaii, art supplies to be creative, the time to make things happen, and the desire to put it all together! But, within the pages of ideas I know there is that one thing that "is IT" but figuring it out is like a needle in a haystack.I have a zillion-and-one ideas, the support of my husband, and now I just need to find out how to live the life I love! I have always embraced the quote: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs, instead ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." For me, I have two areas of my life: my spiritual side and my creative side. This quote pertains to both! I think everyone has a gift and a calling. A gift (or talent) is something they are good at; teaching, bookkeeping, engineering, construction, etc. A calling is a God-given design; your unique spiritual gifts and character traits; service, leadership, prophecy, preaching, encouraging, etc. All of those examples are a few brief ideas that popped into my head as examples. So for this area of my life, it's all about creativity. I'm curious about your input and thoughts!! I want to make, create, share, & do something artistically helpful. Maybe I'll be an entrepreneur with as a mobile military wife! But what exactly? I don't know!! I have lists of ideas!! Here are a few that I want to know your thoughts on...-creating a DIY tips blog-selling arts & crafts on Etsy-consulting women for interior design on a dime-sharing my home projects so others can try them-selling creative flavors, with tasteful design-write a book about my experiences as a military wife-build small furniture items -paint canvases or mixed media art pieces-make jars/buckets for events (example: Housewarming Jar, etc!)-arrange flowers -organize peoples homes-build organizational or office related quirky usable art-write poetry and compile it in a book or website (I love writing poems actually!)-make Dream Boxes for weddings, birthdays, etc.-be a crafter of anything cute or repurposed for my FuzzCreations shopThen the question is, am I doing it for a vocation or avocation? So many people have blogs or are independent consultants. What would set me apart??Do I start a store on Etsy? Do I rework and create a "hopefully successful" DIY blog? Do I become an independent consultant for decorating or a free-lanced artist??!Let me know your thoughts, I'm curious and always open to possibilities... :)PS: I'm learning how to use BlogSpot, so let me know on facebook if you can't post a comment!

Thursday

Did you know that one of the best little pleasures in life is eating a muffin? I abosolutely love muffins and will feel like a food is more divine if in the form of a muffin. This weekend I recieved some of the best snail mail in the world-a box from ModCloth, a box from Anthropologie, and a card from my Mom. :) Inside one of those items was my new white ceramic egg crate and white ceramic berry basket!! I took a picture through Instagram if you want to see it.

Onward to baking my favorite muffins-almond poppyseed...

Thanks to Hannah for the amazing red polk-a-dot muffin decor!

The house had the best smell ever when these muffins came out of the oven. The perfect way to start my Saturday! Muffins with my Man!

My husband had to make his usual eggs, but since we ran out of the usual bacon we tried some left over pizza ingredients. Putting pepperoni and cheese in eggs actually tasted really good! Out on our lanai, we had pizza styled eggs, almond poppyseed muffins, fresh strawberries and our organic milk! (Did I tell you that organic food is the same price as regular food in Hawaii? So we are going healthy!)

Friday

Cathy has such a big name here in Hawaii for design. I'm so humbled to be able to work with her. While we were in a hotel in Waikiki, I went to Hiking Hawaii Cafe every morning and talked with Crystal who happend to be close friends with Cathy and suggested I talk with her about a job. Without her, I would not have a job! Then through a trial period, sharing my passion and background, Cathy hired me as her new designer. We share the self-taught eye for design. These ladies are amazing and feel free to check out everything about them-there's soo much!

This is the before of "The Lounge" which was 2 metal containers put together to become the new employee breakroom, or Lounge.

Some items from West Elm, CS Wo, and others from my favorite store...starts with a TJ...

This white bubble is a white board and the dart board is on a chalkboard paint wall. Both of which the employees can have fun writing on. This area also will be great for charging phones at the reclaimed basketball floor long table we had custom made.

Monday

Well I realized this week that within two days, I put 250 miles on my car!

Crazy, right?

So we are currently staying in a hotel down in Waikiki waiting for permanent housing since we just moved to the island. We actually arrived on Oahu in mid-Oct and have been at the Double Tree Hotel ever since. The staff has been wonderful but we are ready for a home. So we are in Waikiki, and my hubby works between Schofield Barracks and Hickam Air Force Base. I am a temporary shuttle service for him until we his 1975 International Scout 'street legal' for a Hawaii inspection. It is odd to think that we live on an island of about 30x40 miles in size yet everything is far apart.

Here is what one of my crazier days looked like...2:00-4:00AM Couldn't sleep.4:50AM Wake up.5:30AM Leave Waikiki, drive hubby to Hickam. 6:00AM Arrive at Hickam.6:30AM Drive back to Waikiki.7:00AM-9:00AM Prepare for an interview.45 minute drive from Waikiki to Waipahu for said interview.1 1/2 hour interview.From Waipahu go to Kapolei to pick up our mail at my cousins house.12:00-1:00PM Leave Kapolei and meet friend at Schofield Barracks.1:00-4:00PM Hang with friend.5:00PM Drive in rush hour traffic from Schofield Barracks to pick up hubby at Hickam. 6:00PM Leave Hickam to get home to Waikiki.7:00-8:00PM Walking to a restaurant for dinner (we don't have a kitchen!)9:00PM Unload from interview/work/get back to hotel.10:00AM Bed.

Monday

This weekend we received free tickets to see a college football game!! We bought shirts to blend in with UH, had great seats and enjoy a date night together. We had heard that the season wasn't the best but the game we went to was great! The score was 23 to 7 and we won! University of Hawaii Football

One of my favorite things to eat are soft pretzels. You know that going to any sports game you will probably find some. I was so excited and got one! The only problem is, aren't they normally hot? Or at least warm? The vendor lady used a spray bottle to adhere the salt and so it was a cold yet slightly wet 'soft pretzel'. Oh well. I still ate it-it dried and exercised my jaw! Ha.

I'm thankful we had the chance to go, so thank you Veterans United for the tickets!!

Friday

It has been 1 ½ months since we left our home in Missouri.
Ironically I feel settled, since our hotel is so familiar. My new friends are
all the staff of the hotel and Hiking Hawaii café, or random employees I choose
to start chatting with. Throughout the week, Robbie is working and currently
taking a Commanders Course at Schofield. His 1975 Scout needs some ‘fixing’ to
be street legal here and to receive a state inspection so we share one vehicle,
which could either mean I stay down in Waikiki or become a chauffeur at 6am so
I can run errands! If you might think I have been sitting around tanning in the
sun each day, I have only had a handful of completely relaxing days since we
arrived but most entail phone calls about home loans, doctor appointments, job
searching, finding food for myself, journaling, an occasional devotional, and
lots of walking to and from places. J

The 65th Engineer Battalion’s “Hail &
Farewell” was last night at Schofield where Robbie was welcomed into the
company officially and I got a fragrant lei from the Battalion Commander and
his wife, Cindy. We were able to see our friends Shannon and Paul along with
their 6 week old Riley! The day he was born was about the day we arrived.It was nice to be a part of a social event
because we see tons of people (tourists, strangers, traffic) but haven’t had
much of a chance to get connected. The dive team is a smaller company within
the battalion down at Hickam so we won’t be around most of those folks. Bummer.
However, we tried a new church this weekend called New Hope Leeward and
hopefully could find some great people there (if that’s the church we pick!).
We ran into my cousin, without coordinating meeting there, we sat together and
really enjoyed it!

This week I have been bouncing between decisions with job
options. My first options is through Crystal, the owner of Hiking Hawaii Café,
connected me with a colleague named Chef Chai. He has multiple high-end Thai
food restaurants in downtown Honolulu along with other business venues and
could use an administrative coordinator. After scrambling to pull together an
updated resume and sharing with a potential employer my vision for an un-said
job, Chef Chai said after 20 years without any assistance he could use the
help. He needs help with scheduling his catering business, could use a monthly
main floral display, responding to guest inquiries/secretarial work,
bookkeeping, and almost anything a business has in the office. The Hawaiian
mentality is very relaxed and Crystal reminded me that vagueness is
normal.The idea of coming up with my
own job description, hours, pay, and tasks in the area I have talked about
wanting to get into sounds amazing. Terrifyingly vague. But exciting. The
second option is through New Hope Leeward Church’s Christian School. After receiving
the “welcome to our church” phone call, I was able to ask the New Hope church
if they had any staff positions available and they mentioned that their preK-6
school is hiring. The sound of becoming a preschool teacher was very intriguing
and I applied! The difficulty was in writing out a several page application, to
include a testimony of how I became a Christian, on the spot while writing on a
clipboard. I like writing but it is always nerve wracking to figure out the
best way to portray oneself. This job appears to be teaching 2-3 year olds
through an established curriculum and classroom. I believe that I might have
healed from my past teaching experience and can move on towards teaching again.
It’s nerve-wracking that I would be trying to teach again. Yet exciting. So,
between both options that both have elements of excitement and risk; I’m
waiting to see which leads to the best answer of doing something fulfilling and
“Audra-like”. Right now I am thinking I will do both because I love the idea,
experience, and opportunities of being an administrative coordinator (I picked
the title!) and preschool teacher! I did pray about the opportunity for getting
involved in event planning-the next week, “poof!” the opportunity with Chef
Chai popped up. I did tell Robbie two weeks ago that “I think I’d be interested
in teaching again, and would love to do preschool teaching, but teaching (not
daycare) positions for preschool never are available.” POOF! I believe I’m
supposed to be learning a lesson here… J

Robbie found out that his command time has been moved up
from May to January! The dive team will be doing a TDY mission to Cambodia for
a few months in February and that will the main mission he is already prepping
for. December is right around the corner and we hope to move into a home by
then, we won't be able to visit family for Christmas (so I guess it's going to be a big day for Skype-if we have internet), by the first week of January I can start both the job with the school and
Chef Chai, Robbie goes to Virginia for dive training in the second week of January,
then he starts command mid-January, and in February is Cambodia! So things will
ramp up quickly!! Not to mention some medical stuff, but I’ll talk about that
later. J

Otherwise, our life is simply waiting to hear about our date
to move. We did buy a house and we are so close to closing! We are just waiting
for the seller to do their termite inspection and we are ready to record. The
place is a townhome in a complex with a pool. There is a detached two car
garage, enclosed lanai (porch), and 3 bed/2 bath one story home. The third
bedroom has an open wall into the living room and is more of an office. I
believe you know how much I love color, but we will probably have to repaint
into a few neutrals because the neon toothpaste mint in the bathrooms and
passionate mandarin pineapple in the living room is a little too much for even
me. Otherwise, our new home is a clean and wonderful home built in 2000 in Ewa
Beach. J
We hopefully will move out of our hotel and into our home mid-December. The
only pressure for timing is that our government TLA allotment for hotel
reimbursement ends Dec. 14 (we have 60 days and will have used them all!). As
long as we are in by Dec. 14, I’m happy. J

Anyways, I hope this gives you a little insight into our
lives. I love hearing from you too! I hope you get to bake Christmas cookies or
at least eat some for me because I really wish I was able to have people over
and do something festive for the holidays. The weather is between 70-80 degrees
during the day and although beautiful, it’s not a true winter that I am used
to. J

Wednesday

Observation #1)I've learned I can live on very little however it is easy to forget there are crates full of things waiting for me! Observation #2) Home is where you are with your spouse however without sounding materialistic, I can't wait to see my stuff when we move!

Observation #3)Living in a tourist area gives me a false reality of what Hawaii is really like; because I will have to pay for that nice cold A/C and warm bath water!Observation #4)Why does it say, "Patience is a virtue?" Because it is. Simple as that. A simple statement, yet hard to execute.

Observation #7)I have learned that I felt at home in our hotel (ie: stress level decreased) when I stopped using the TomTom to navigate to our hotel in Waikiki and repacked our suitcases to make available only the 'daily items'. Observation #8)Life is about who you know...hate to say it, but it's true! O'hana-family/close friends-When people take care of each other and the opportunities are endless.

Observation #9)I sincerely believe traveling is no excuse to not prioritize the parents, sisters, and kiddos, plus close friends you left on the mainland. I do my best; but always try to communicate!

Best breakfast ever! We went home to CO and ate breakfast at Snooze with our good friends. After seeing the most adorable yellow curvy coffee mugs ever, I was hooked. I was able to find their mugs for sale online and my hubby said I could use it as a reward for finishing the HHG Claim with our military move that took 6 months to get the paperwork complete for our damaged goods and to be reimbursed. So now we have a lil' handmade ray of sunshine each morning from Colorado.

It never occurred to me that when mowing the lawn, it would actually turn into a dust storm because of our basically dessert collection of weeds: aka: grass. This weekend in my attempt to be a responsible home owner (renter) we watered the grass and cut the trim with a weed whacker. Simple, right?

Since we will be moving soon we haven't purchased a lawn mower or weed whacker. Who knew those were the hottest commodity in the entire Ozarks! People apparently dumpster dive for these items or share. I don't have the heart to do a drive by neighbor stalking session so we have borrowed these yard appliances. A few weeks ago the new neighbor down the street was trashing a lawn mower and after my hubby's encouragement to snag it, I knocked on the door (like a civil dumpster diver) and asked if they were keeping the lawn mower. They said I could have it! My hubby fixed it up and we now have a great mower for free. :)

This weekend we used our great machine, but it doesn't always get the edges so our lovely neighbors still get that random door knock to borrow their weed whacker. Since they were away at the moment and I was eager to complete the yard I agreed to a DIY version. First, I did some preparing for those tall pesky weeds by stomping the edges like a freak with my feet! Then I did another stomping session right in front of the mower while my hubby carefully mowed forward. So I'm sure our neighbors were home and laughing at us. The lawn mower got most of the tall unruly weeds but the others I figured I would help-with scissors.

Can you imagine it? My husband mowing our basically dead lawn of weeds in the 100 degree Saturday weather with a big dust funnel forming above him, then myself bending over like a crazy person cutting all the edges of our yard around the patio with scissors! It worked, it just made me laugh :)

It is a windy Martin Luther King Day! A year ago, I was passing out special activities for my 2nd grade students to celebrate their unknown celebrity of history. My, how much has changed since then! The dark clouds roll in and let the light flicker through the window. We have been so blessed in the short two weeks we've lived in St. Robert. We met several neighbors who share our enjoyment of laughter, play, and time hanging together. Then we found a church full of old West Point buddies from Robbie's school days and chatted through the lunch crowd at Panera (the sole attraction on a Sunday morning!). I'm so excited to already know so many people! Out of the 2500 people it feels like we've met 200! What great odds...Like a family member said, "Maybe we'll run for mayor at this rate!"

We have a spacious home and already feel like taking on home projects. Our neighbors have strongly influenced my New Years Resolution to be more eco-friendly. I got excited and planted seeds in an egg carton for growing indoors, then even took the banana peel outside to our wooded backyard! I have to laugh, wearing a headlamp and creaping out the side porch door with a banana peel does look suspicious! Robbie has taken on the Elantra as a project; somehow the heater went out with the first icy snow. Fabulous timing. Our squeaky engine alerts the neighbors that we don't own the twin to their beefy F250 with 20 inch rims.

Today's forcast looks like a roadtrip to Springfield with a few showers of couch cuddles. Some eggs, biscuits, yogurt, and the smell of coffee are calling me to the kitchen. Enjoy your MLK Day!

Wednesday

Inside a modern city loft, outside on an historic walkway, or simply a quintessential bungalow; it just works all because of one simple brick layered upon another.

Reminscent of travels and stories past told, a brick wall gives off the coziness of grandma's house and the adventure of a new location.

Bricks are a structurally a simple foundation support that has been around for centuries. Yet somehow our fast past society has allowed bricks to transcend time by creative appreciation because it reflects simple pleasures.

Bricks creatively hold the architectural personality of all spaces, like the idealistic balcony of Juliet or the bay window of a Great Lakes traditional home.

Monday

The Art of A Forever Flower

I came up with the idea to make lasting floral gifts to the ladies in my family. Each flower was picked based on the individual's tastes and then I wrote wordsof encouragement on different petals that were significant to them. For the sake of a unique, allergy-free, and lasting gift; I'd say they turned out wonderfully :)

Sunday

I'm baacckk! After spending the spring in our church's Easter play, The Living Passover, and visiting Colorado for a month (sister had her baby girl, mom's in between hip surgeries) and now I'm in the 6th month of Robbie's deployment, so I'm finally working on getting into a routine or something 'normal'.

Wednesday

From Paper to Paint

I wanted to add some detail to our bedroom walls and although I got lost in the romantic sayings and wall decals, I decided to paint my own lamp post/lantern and not pay for the expensive sticker! I really don't like measuring out things but I did and sketched out the lantern from what I saw in my sketch book and then painted it in a berry colored paint on the wall. I love how it turned out especially since our bedroom has a photo collage of Paris and our wedding, it added to the romantic atmosphere!